Embattled Industrial Museum looks for support in the history

A well-attended open house Sunday gives a glimmer of hope to Bethlehem organization shaken by grand jury investigation.

The National Museum of Industrial History held an open house to show its… (MICHAEL KUBEL, THE MORNING…)

March 02, 2014|By Matt Assad, Of The Morning Call

Cash-poor and under fire, the National Museum of Industrial History Sunday flung open the doors of its storage facility to give people a glimpse of what the museum could be.

It could be an interactive journey in which people can see hundreds of pieces of machinery that sparked the Industrial Revolution in action.

Or it could be a failed 17 years in which all those artifacts on display for the first time in years did nothing but collect dust while NMIH officials squandered $17 million in private donations, as a Northampton County grand jury alleged in a report released in January.

That's the decision hanging in the balance, and NMIH board chairman L. Charles Marcon Sunday said the reception the open house tours get will go a long way in swaying the board.

If they're asking Jim Hansen, a retired engineer from Bethlehem, the answer is clear. Hansen doesn't doubt a single word delivered in the grand jury's scathing report, but he believes the museum should be built anyway.

"It's a shame so much money was wasted to this point. Clean house if you have to, but don't blow this chance," he said as he marveled over the 19th-century machinery. "See this lathe? It's probably 140 years old, but they were so precise using it, you'd think the items were made today. I just love this stuff. All of it."

It's exactly the reaction that Marcon was hoping for. Hansen was one of 40 people who, in just the first hour, found their way to the unmarked warehouse in Lehigh Valley Industrial Park III, Hanover Township, Lehigh County.

Inside there were no glitzy interactive displays or informational videos, but the nostalgia was there and several volunteers were there to fan a history buff's curiosity. The artifacts tell the story of inventors and workers from the Industrial Revolution to the present, and while steelmaking grabs the spotlight, the display also features industries such as textile, papermaking, transportation, power and petroleum.

The warehouse includes models made in the 1950s of the Steel plant and the famous 48-inch mill that produced the I-beam that built much of the New York City skyline. But the bulk of the display is on loan from the Smithsonian Institution's 1876 Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia, which includes a windmill, papermaker and a 25,000-pound locomotive built in 1851 for the Cumberland Valley Railroad.

There are several looms, donated by Scalamandre of New York, which made fine silks for upholstery and linens. The vintage Otis elevator from the Grand Union Hotel sits in three pieces, unable to be set up yet because of the size of the one-story warehouse.

If the museum ever gets open, much of it will be made to operate so people can see it in action.

"I've been waiting 17 years to see this stuff," said Mike Jefferson, a 46-year-old machinist whose brother and grandfather worked at Bethlehem Steel.

The museum was proposed in the 1990s to be the anchor of an entertainment district to be built on the former Bethlehem Steel plant site in south Bethlehem. But with funds short, it's since been scaled back to a fraction of the original plan and the property is now anchored by the Sands Casino.

On Jan. 30, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli released the grand jury's investigation into why the museum hadn't opened despite raising $17 million. The report found no criminal wrongdoing but it criticized the museum board for its "almost blind confidence" in CEO Stephen Donches, a former Steel executive.

The report alleged that Donches has been paid nearly $2.5 million in salary and benefits over the last dozen years, and the museum has spent $1 million on fundraisers that raised just $75,000. Some money was used to add a new roof and windows at Steel's 1913 electric repair shop, which was to become the museum's home, but most was spent on paying employees like Donches and consultants.

The five open house sessions are left to strike a delicate balance if they are to help fade the stain left by the grand jury report. Conducting some of the tours was Donches and they were held in the same warehouse that the report concluded was responsible for squandering $125,000 a year in storage fees.

It's not even the first time the museum has tried to use a sneak peak to generate support. In 2006, it opened the same warehouse to the public.

But none of that seemed to matter to Jack Keefe, an engineer from Bethlehem.

"There are a lot of people pulling for you guys," Keefe said as he shook Marcon's hand. "Not only would I pay $10 to get into the museum, I'd be a member and a volunteer. You have to get this done."

Marcon said they'll need a lot more people like Keefe if they're going to raise the $2 million needed to finish the museum, and then find a way to fund a $750,000 annual budget to keep it open.

As Marcon looked at the people filling up the isles in between the machines, he found hope that's been hard to locate the past month.

"More people than I thought," he said. "Doesn't fix everything, but it's encouraging. It helps."

Featuring: Artifacts including more than 100 pieces from the Smithsonian Institution's 1876 Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia, which included a windmill, papermaker and a 25,000-pound locomotive built in 1851, as well as looms and machines donated by donated by Scalamandre of New York and models of former steel plants.